Last Night with Tom Harkin: So It Begins

Des Moines, Iowa -- Late last night, up in Waterloo, where he was campaigning with Bruce Braley, Senator Tom Harkin got to talking about the greatest triumph of his Senate career -- the battle for the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and as far-reaching and important a law as any one ever passed. In the 24 years since, the act has opened up full participation in American life for millions of citizens who were shut out before for no reasonexcept for the lack of something as simple as a ramp, or a curb cut, or the sonic signals at the red lights of an intersection.

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In the past week, Los Angeles International Airport said it installed five grassy ''relief stations'' for travelers with guide dogs. The facilities include bowls and fake fire hydrants. In Virginia, The Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, which owns and maintains George Washington's estate, promised the Justice Department it will modify Mount Vernon's main walkway, build a less steep entry ramp and make exhibitions more useful to deaf, hard of hearing, blind and low-vision visitors. In the same week, the department also said Blockbuster will train employees to ensure people with service animals have full and equal access to its more than 3,000 stores.

Through the years, there have been lawsuits, and there has been the customary huffing and blowing about government regulation, and the free market, and on and on. It was a case concerning the application of the ADA to inmates of state prisons that gave one of the first indications of where the Roberts Court was headed. But, by and large, the law has stood the test of time. I suggested, half in jest, that Harkin's great contribution to the law might very well have helped us get Greg Abbott as the next governor of Texas. Abbott is confined to a wheelchair because of an accident. Thanks to the ADA, and ultimately Tom Harkin, Abbott's life has been made immeasurably easier, and his ability to achieve his political ambitions considerably enhanced. Harkin was not amused.

"That guy," Harkin said. "That guy. Do you know what he's been up to?"

In fact, I did. As the Attorney General for Texas, Abbott has moved to block lawsuits by disabled citizens in Texas against that state under the ADA, arguing that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to force the state to comply.

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In a series of legal cases in his three terms, Abbott's office has fought a blind pharmacy professor in Amarillo who wanted reflective tape on the stairs to her office; two deaf defendants in Laredo who asked for a qualified sign language interpreter in their courtroom; and a woman with an amputated leg. In that case, the state argued she was not disabled because she had a prosthetic limb. Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him while he was jogging and crushed his spine almost 30 years ago, applauds the 1990 federal law. It has helped provide the ramps, wide doors and access that allow him to give speeches and meet with constituents. While Abbott, the leading Republican contender for governor, benefits from the ADA mandates that guide businesses, builders and cities, he believes it is unconstitutional to force the state to comply. He has argued that his duty is to protect the state's autonomy and its taxpayers by using all legal tools available to him - including the argument that the state is immune from disability lawsuits brought under the ADA.

"That's all about pulling up the ladder," Harkin fumed. "That's about pulling up the ladder behind you, and not helping people with the same problems you have." He shook his head twice, as though he had thought about these things too long.

That is the part of movement conservatism -- and therefore, of the Republican party, which would not exist without movement conservatism -- that is too little noticed, and even less well discussed. It is how Clarence Thomas can rail against affirmative action programs that were his first chance to get out of rural Georgia. It is how Paul Ryan can argue to privatize Social Security after being the beneficiary of survivor benefits throughout his high school and college years. It is how Chris Christie can bloviate about government overreach and simultaneously explain how the GI Bill saved his parents. It is how the Republican party could dedicate one entire night of its convention to the notion that people make it through grit and bootstraps and, without appreciating the irony of it, listen to stories that inevitably began, "When my Dad/Mom got out of the service..." So many people got their first legs up through the support -- and the tax dollars -- of millions of their fellow citizens.

This is not I've-Got-Mine-Jack. That could apply to someone with the advantages of a Willard Romney. This is You-Gave-Me-Mine-Jack-Now-Go-Get-Yours. It is a monumental exercise in ingratitude, and all indications are that it will have a triumphant night for itself this evening. This isn't pulling up the ladder. It's pulling up the ladder, setting it on fire, and burying the ladder. My new friend, Joni Ernst, will probably be a senator, and they're already talking about her as a possible vice-presidential pick in 2016 -- Luke Russert seems particularly taken by her -- and she's been a soldier and a state senator, and she thinks that we should abolish student loans and get the government out of "our" lives. We are such suckers. We all ought to ask for a refund from all of these people.

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